Misunderstood
by Amaranth the Immortal
Summary: It feels horrible to be misunderstood. But the ache that you get from it lightens when somebody understands. For Ikuto, the one that finally manages to see his true intentions is a certain someone he's come to love.


**Today's me birthday!! YAY!!! I'm turning thirteen!! XD Anyway, in order to celebrate, I decided to write a one-shot that had been swirling inside my head. Once again, I don't think it's anywhere as good as it could be. In fact, I'm not satisfied with it at all. But I'm going to be busy all day so this was my only chance to write it (early in the morning... and I'm slow when I wake up). And tomorrow I'm going to be in New York City for the entire day so I can't completely rewrite it. But it doesn't matter, because I have another multi-chapter fic I'm writting that I feel a lot more confident about. :D Besides, I really wanted to write this :)**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Shugo Chara!!! . . . . . BWAHHHHHH!!!! :'(**

**Important (kinda) notes: This fic is set before Ikuto moves in with Amu and neither him or Tadase confessed yet. Nagihiko doesn't have his Chara (*cries hystarically* what? I love Rhythm...). I think that's all I wanted to say ^^'**

**Edit: I'm sorry to anybody who subscribed to me and got a notice of a new fic when there wasn't one. i posted this a little while ago, but for some reason fanfiction deleted it O.o so im posting it again. hopefully, it'll stay up this time... XD**

At the sound of the bell Cool 'n Spicy Hinamori Amu slid smoothly out of her seat, pulled her bag onto her shoulder and with an obnoxious flip of her bubblegum pink hair, walked out of the classroom. Her fellow students gazed after her in awe until she was long gone with Rima on her tail. They shouted their usual, "Cool 'n Spicy!" with stars in their eyes while Tadase, who was packing up in the back of the classroom, smiled knowingly.

Rima kept close to Amu, clinging to her arm and sending death glares to anyone who came too close for her comfort. She gave an especially unpleasant one to Nagihiko who had caught up and fell into step with them. He walked right next to Rima, much to her annoyance and gave her an innocent smile. As a response, she stuck her nose into the air and turned to Amu.

Tadase had broken into a trot to try to catch up with them. Yaya had unfortunately found him first and slowed him down as she clung to his arm like a small child. Eventually, when he didn't respond to her behavior, she became bored and pouted until she spotted Amu, Rima and Nagihiko further up the hall. She shouted their names and skipped up to them. Tadase sighed in relief and followed her.

The sun was beating down harshly on everyone in Seiyo's grounds. The scattered skinny trees had all of their space taken up by students squeezing under them. Rima hung back from the light and stood in the shadow of the front doorway.

"Rima, it's only the sun," Amu sighed, giving her short blonde haired friend a small somewhat exasperated smile. Nagihiko didn't comment. Instead, he reached forward and pulled out Rima's large sunglasses. He shoved them onto her nose and took her hand, pulling her towards the front gate. Yaya followed them with the usual spring in her step, leaving Amu alone with Tadase.

"So," they booth started at the same time. They blushed and went silent, quietly following the other three Guardians off of school grounds.

"I'm going to the candy store!" Yaya announced out of the blue.

"Is there any reason why?" Amu asked.

"I'm bored!"

And so, Yaya turned left and disappeared around the corner. Rima shrugged and continued along, everyone else following.

They turned into a deserted street, unaware of a certain cat boy watching them with interest. His cerulean eyes watched Tadase nervously grasp Amu's hand and blush like crazy while going it. The navy blue haired boy smirked, watching with satisfaction as Amu's cheeks turned only light pink and didn't stutter with her response. The cat boy knew her reaction would have been much livelier if he was in Tadase's shoes. So, with that thought swirling in his head, he continued watching, unbothered by their exchange.

Amu felt the hair on the back of her neck stand up and glanced around a little frightened. She felt like someone was watching her…

'It must just be the excess nerves from _that_,' she thought, risking a glance at Tadase's hand.

"Amu-chan!" Ran shouted, floating in her face. "I sense X-eggs!"

"Really?" Amu asked, looking around for the offending black heart's eggs.

"Over there!" Miki shouted, pointing at about ten X-eggs flying around down the street. The Guardians and Ikuto in the tree locked their eyes on the eggs.

"Without Yaya here, things will be more difficult," Nagihiko muttered, trying to quickly think up a new strategy. "Usually we have four people who can Character Transform. With only three, our current battle plan won't work."

"I could help," a husky voice behind them announce. Amu froze, recognizing it with a loud groan. Tadase whipped around and started shouting.

"Tsukiyomi Ikuto!" he yelled while all of his friends rolled their eyes. This was getting old. Ikuto just smirked with Yoru sniggering at his shoulder. "What makes you think we'd stoup low enough to ask for your help?"

"As much as I hate to say it, Tadase," Amu began, looking warily at Ikuto who grinned triumphantly at her, "we need him so our usual strategy can work properly."

"But-"

"I think Amu just wants me by her side," Ikuto interjected smoothly, walking up to Amu.

She blushed and screamed, "No!" a little too loudly. It hardly sounded convincing. Even Tadase gazed at her sadly.

Just to get the attention off of herself, Amu Character Transformed with Ran, her body flashing rays of pink everywhere.

"Character Transformation: Amulet Heart!"

"Amulet Heart…" Tadase murmured, star struck. Ikuto narrowed his eyes at the Kiddy King.

'He's going to break Amu's heart one day,' Ikuto thought with a sigh. "Yoru!" he shouted, beginning to Character Transform.

"Character Transformation: Black Lynx!" he bellowed in his deep voice, earning a small blush from Amu.

'Too easy,' he thought, giving her a smirk.

The other two Guardians that could Transform followed suit.

"Character Transformation: Platinum Royal!"

"Character Transformation: Clown Drop!"

"Alright," Nagihiko began as everyone except Ikuto who stood hearing distance away crowded around him, "Rima will round up the X-eggs and pin them. Tadase and Ikuto will catch any that get away. Amu will wait for an opportunity to use Open Heart. Sound good?"

Everyone nodded and got into position. Ikuto sauntered over to Tadase with a bored expression. The young king gave him a frown. Ikuto then spotted Amu a few feet away. He walked up behind her, unnoticed, and blew in her ear. She squeaked and started thrashing around as Ikuto put his arms around her bare stomach.

"I like this Transformation," he whispered in her ear. "We match." He turned her around to face him, still trapped against his chest. He took one over hands in his own and placed it on his stomach, grinning. Her amber eyes widened and her face turned bright red.

"You pervert!" she shouted. He ignored the comment and placed her hand on his face.

"Warm…" he mumbled.

"You thieving cat!" Tadase shouted behind him. He felt a scepter smash into the back of his head. Amu gasped, unconsciously concerned for Ikuto. The cat boy flinched and sucked in a breath through his teeth. It had actually hurt. He turned to face Tadase with a dangerous glint in his eyes.

"You shouldn't have done that Kiddy King," he growled, genuinely angry. He managed to contain it, but still felt like threatening the royal want-to-be. He flashed his claws in front of his face, showing off their sleek sharp edges to the small boy infront of him wearing cream colored tights and ruffles, holding a fancy looking little golden stick.

"That's enough, you two," Amu said, stepping between them and placing a hand on each of them. "Let's just purify the X-eggs and get this over with."

"The X-eggs are getting impatient," Rima announced, looking like she was the one who was actually the impatient one. Without waiting for a response, she threw her pins at the eggs while shouting, "Juggling Party!" The X-eggs were suspended in mid air, but one was able to escape. It raced toward Amu, who was in the air preparing her Open Heart. It got past Ikuto who thought that perhaps Tadase would want to get it instead. He was going to let the young king get it, but when Tadase made no move to grab it, Ikuto realized it was too late to do anything about it. The black egg collided with Amu, sending her crashing to the ground.

"Amu!" Ikuto shouted, jumping up and catching her. Tadase glared at Ikuto and used Holy Crown Special to trap the escaped X-egg and purify it. He raced toward Amu who was still in Ikuto's arms, shaking her head to get rid of the dizziness she felt. She stood up quickly when she noticed Rima struggling with keeping the X-eggs in place.

"Open Heart!" she shouted, turning the X-eggs back to their original forms with a nearly blinding pink light. They all flew off and Amu rubbed her sore arm that was aching from the X-egg attack.

"What's wrong with you?" Tadase shouted at the stunned Ikuto. "Why didn't you get the egg?"

"I thought you were going to get it," Ikuto growled, not liking Tadase's tone.

"Well, you thought wrong! You're a clumsy cat that was too lazy to do anything."

Ikuto glared and opened his mouth to retort. Tadase interrupted him with a glare of his own.

"You put Hinamori-san in danger!"

Ikuto's words caught in his throat as he tried to take in Tadase's words. It was… his fault? He glanced around at Rima and Nagihiko. Rima frowned at him and Nagihiko narrowed his eyes, his mouth a straight line. He then glanced worriedly at Amu, fearing her reaction. To his surprise, she was glaring, but not at him. Instead, she was directing her frown at Tadase.

"It's not Ikuto's fault," she said loudly, stepping away from her friends a little. "He's just not used to the way we fight. I can tell that he honestly thought Tadase could deal with the X-egg alone. And besides, he still saved me after I got hit." She turned to him and gave him one of the few rare smiles she directed solely to him. "Thanks, Ikuto."

He stood for a moment, stunned by her speech. His eyes were full of surprise as he regarded her honest smile. He collected his thoughts again and grinned at her before jumping away. A warm feeling spread through him as he distanced himself from the Guardians.

Amu had become one of the few people that saw through the usually misunderstood black cat. She saw the genuine will he had to do good.

**Like I said, I don't like it. I loved the idea in my head, but I think I murdered it when I put it into words. Not to mention the ending was kinda OOC... and the whole thing was really rushed. Personally, I think this really is how Amu feels when Ikuto saves her. Well anyway, if you like it or at least don't mind it, please review. If not... well, hopefully I'll do better next time. Or at least I won't have to rush to get it finished. :)**


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